Celebrate National Seniors Day 2024

Celebrate the seniors in your life this October 1st for National Seniors Day! Whether they are a parent, co-worker, neighbour, or friend, take some time to show your appreciation and respect for the senior members of our communities. The Government of Canada officially recognizes October 1st as National Seniors Day each year in honour of the contributions they bring to our society and to remind ourselves of all that they’ve done for our communities.

National Seniors Day at KnowledgeFlow

Today we wanted to share some things that we do at KnowledgeFlow for seniors as well as what you can do to get involved! Seniors are often the target of online scams due to their lack of tech knowledge, making them one of our most vulnerable populations. We make it a priority to ensure that they are well equipped to deal with any digital challenges they might face. Here are some common scams that are important to make sure the seniors in your lives are aware of, and how to protect themselves if they encounter one: 

The Grandparent Scam

The Grandparent Scam is an increasingly prevalent scam that fraudsters use to target senior citizens, where a fraudster will typically impersonate a family member or authority figures such as police officers and reach out to the seniors through call, text, and email with a fabricated emergency in order to manipulate the grandparent into providing financial assistance.

The Grandparent Scam is largely unreported due to victims feeling too embarrassed to come forward, so help ensure that your grandparents are equipped with the necessary information to protect themselves from this scam. Remind your grandparents to:

• Do NOT trust a caller ID as scammers can impersonate organizations to appear legitimate
• Never give out or verify information with the caller – scammers can easily find personal information and use it to trick you!
• Don’t ask questions or try to verify information against the scammer – the best course of action is always to hang up and not give them the opportunity to get important information from you!

Make sure your grandparents are staying safe online by sharing our resources with them so they know how to protect themselves!

Phishing

Phishing is another common cyber attack that is sent through email, and often targets seniors. A phishing attack aims to manipulate the recipient of the message into taking some form of action such as replying to a text or clicking on a link that then makes the recipient vulnerable to revealing sensitive information such as financial information or allowing the attacker to log in to your system accounts.

Check out our tipsheet on phishing here to learn how to identify a potential phishing scam and the best practices when dealing with one. To test your ability to identify a phishing scam, take a phishing quiz here and see which scams you can correctly identify!

Another great way to make sure you and your loved ones are staying protected against phishing scams is to join our Phishing Campaign, which will sign you up to receive harmless phishing emails in order to test and train your ability to spot them. This is an excellent way to get practice in identifying phishing emails so that if you receive one from a scammer, you’ll be able to quickly identify the email and the best course of action!

What Can You Do?

The best way for you to help empower the seniors in your life to stay safe online, not just during National Seniors Day, but everyday, is by staying informed yourself on ways that they may be targeted by online scams and learning how to recognize potential scams to protect both your loved ones and yourself. We provide numerous resources on cybersafety specifically for seniors, from events and tip sheets to online courses, so check out this blog from Seniors Month 2024 which outlines all of our Cybersafety Academy courses tailored for seniors as well as our other online resources. For more about our mission to help seniors navigate the complexities of online interactions, read our article here.

We hope everyone enjoys National Seniors Day this year, and remember to take some time to reach out and show your appreciation for your friends and family!